---
title: So before he left the cave he vowed that his little wife should neve… — More English Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: So before he left the cave he vowed that his little wife should never touch a spinning-wheel, and he kept his word. Who acts: face, little wife. A sentence of «More English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, More English Fairy Tales, part 17, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# More English Fairy Tales, More English Fairy Tales, part 17, sentence 50

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So before he left the cave he vowed that his little wife should never touch a spinning-wheel, and he kept his word.

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**Who acts:** face, little wife · **What happens:** leave, vow, not touch, keep, word · **To what, where:** cave, spinning wheel, word

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This is a sentence of «More English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, More English Fairy Tales, part 17. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (face, little wife), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

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**Parsed by Mova, not checked by a teacher.** This tree is Mova's own parse (the `en` model, on the CPU, when the site is built); it may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg14241:31:50
# text = So before he left the cave he vowed that his little wife should never touch a spinning-wheel, and he kept his word.
1	So	so	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
2	before	before	SCONJ	IN	_	4	mark	_	_
3	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	left	leave	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	cave	cave	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
7	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
8	vowed	vow	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
9	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	15	mark	_	_
10	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	12	nmod:poss	_	_
11	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
12	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nsubj	_	_
13	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	15	aux	_	_
14	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	15	advmod	_	_
15	touch	touch	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	advcl	_	_
16	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
17	spinning	spinning	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	17	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	wheel	wheel	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
22	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
23	kept	keep	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
24	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	25	nmod:poss	_	_
25	word	word	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **leave** | past | face | the cave |  |  |  |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent cave=Theme |
| 2 | **vow** | past | face |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **not** **touch** | should | face's little wife | a spinning wheel |  |  |  |  | vn contiguous\_location-47.8-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme wheel=Co-Theme |
| 4 | **keep** | past | face | face's word |  |  |  |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent word=Theme |
| 5 | **word** |  | face |  |  |  |  |  | nom word «communication transitive»: poss=agent |

<!-- .note -->
One row per clause the reader finds. «not said here»: a role filled from the clause above. «roles by»: a VerbNet class and frame when one fits the verb, else the reader's rules on the tree.

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**Text:** «More English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Project Gutenberg book 14241 (public domain in the USA). **Tree:** Mova's own parse, Elamur Cosmic License. **Frames:** Mova's frames reader (`prag`), the chapter read in order.

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